


Thin Ice

by NYS30



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Bonkai Figure Skating AU, F/M, Gen, I am so weak, Joshua is a bad dad, Mentions of Suicide, Minor Violence, Past Child Abuse, bonkai au, he's also a bit of a stalker, possible inaccurate figure skating terms, possible inaccurate hockey terms, that damn discord
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-03-25
Packaged: 2019-12-07 05:01:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18230270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NYS30/pseuds/NYS30
Summary: That Bonkai skating AU that (some) people asked for.





	Thin Ice

"I found the...oops." Bonnie trails off as she rounds the corner. She realizes a little too late that she made the mistake of not knocking. She apologizes as her grandmother shoos her away, "Sorry, didn't know you were with someone."

"You can stay." The man hasn't taken his eyes off her, and if Bonnie were honest, she hasn't taken her eyes off him either. She'd always thought hockey players were too big and bulky, but this one is muscular in all the right places. He's wearing a tank top that shows off his chest and arms, and Bonnie briefly fantasizes about how easily it looks like he could pick her up and hold her against the wall as he….

"Bonnie!" Her grandmother's sharp voice cuts through her daydreams, and she feels her face heat up in embarrassment. What in the hell just happened? She was so not the type to have dirty daydreams about hockey players, especially ones that were being treated by her Grandmother!

Bonnie cleared her throat, "Yes ma'am?" She addressed the older woman who was glancing between the two younger people in the room.

"I need you to take those skates to be sharpened." She gestured to a bin full of skates that were positioned right next to where the man sat with his leg propped up.

"Sure, no problem." Bonnie took a deep breath and walked closer. Her grandmother had gone back to bending over the silent man's leg, but his attention was still fixed on Bonnie. Deciding to take the bull by the horns, she stopped when she reached the bin and held out her hand. "Hi, I'm Bonnie."

A smile slowly lit his face, and Bonnie wanted to groan. Dimples! The man had dimples for Christ Sake! How was she supposed to fight against that? He took her hand in his and ran his thumb over her knuckles, "Mal Parker, nice to meet you." Bonnie saw her grandmother do a double take. It technically wasn't a lie, it was his name, just not the one that everyone knew him by.

Well, shit. Bonnie knew she was in trouble right then and there.

***

She saw a lot more of 'Mal Parker' over the coming weeks. Somehow he seemed to know not only exactly when she was due to practice, but when she was alone on the ice as well. There had been many mornings where she would have sworn she was alone, yet minutes later, he would come whooshing by and startle her out of her head space. Bonnie noticed that he would always wait until her coach had left before he started antics.

She waited a few months before she let on that she knew who he really was. Malachai "Kai" Parker was notorious in the skating world, and not just for his slap shots. He had once been the reigning World's male figure skating champion, a pre-curser to today's Nathan Chen, unstoppable and undoubtedly headed for the Olympics. However, that changed when he abruptly quit figure skating, packed on 20 plus pounds of muscle, and made the switch to playing hockey.

Joshua Parker, his coach, father, and almost Olympian himself, had been furious. He claimed to have been blind-sided by his son's sudden change in careers, and vowed to do whatever to bring him back to his senses. Joshua had hounded Kai relentlessly when he was still in Portland, showing up at his practices and deliberately staging scenes so the two would be forced to interact. He even started attending hockey games with Kai's younger half brother and sister in tow. What was curious was that while Joshua was doing all his grandstanding and show-boating, Kai never said a thing. He never explicitly said why he quit figure skating, or moved out of the Parker family home, he just went about his business and ignored the rest of the world.

So, yeah, while Bonnie knew that he had been a figure skater, it was hard to believe with his current body type. But as he jumped and twirled around, she could see how he had once been the World's champion 2 years in a row. He would often throw out little things for her to work on, and once she got over the idea that he was criticizing her, she found that he really did know what he was talking about. She took his advice and added one more triple axel to her program and saw her overall score shoot up so much that she placed 2nd at Nationals.

That warranted a full weekend of non-stop sex in a hotel room far away from the other competitors.

***

Once the hockey season started up, she understandably saw less of him due to both of their schedules. She volunteered to help her grandmother in her clinic just so she could grab a few extra minutes of his time. They hadn't had the "what are we" talk, but Bonnie wasn't seeing anyone else, and she knew that Kai didn't have the time to be seeing anyone else. They were cruising along in their own little world.

Which of course didn't last long.

They had gotten so used to the normal people in the rink knowing about them and not saying anything that they got sloppy.

"Ow!"

"Sorry, just let me move my arm."

"Yeah, that's not helping. Can we turn on a light?"

"You don't like the atmosphere I've carefully crafted?"

"We're in a storage closet, there is no atmosphere. Where the hell is my phone?"

Bonnie located her phone and turned on the flashlight. She placed it on the nearest shelf and turned back to the now pouting man. "Seriously? I couldn't see anything, Kai."

"But you could feel." He slides his hands around her waist to palm her ass.

"Subtle." Bonnie looped her arms around his neck.

"Nah, that's not my style." His hands move down to her thighs, and before she knows it, he's lifted her in his arms. Bonnie hooked her ankles behind his back and tightened her arms around his neck, bringing his face closer to hers. "Then what is your style, Parker?"

He flashed her a wicked grin and Bonnie almost came right then and there. She wondered how many times he could make her cum by the time he had to start warming up. They were well on their way to finding out when the door to the supply closet flew open.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?" The smarmy voice of Damon Salvatore intruded on their private time. "I never would have guessed you were a storage closet kind of girl, Bon Bon."

"Yeah, well, I've always known you were a perv of the highest order, Damon. Shut the damn door." Bonnie snapped, lamenting the loss of her orgasm at the expense of Damon of all people. He was not only Kai's teammate, but his family happened to also own the damn rink. She nudged Kai's back with her ankle to signal him to let her down.

"Gladly." Bonnie's jaw dropped as Damon indeed closed the door, but with him inside of the now cramped closet with Bonnie and Kai.

"Are you out of your damn mind?" Kai asked softly in what Bonnie knew was his, 'about to break something' voice.

"I'm not opposed to sharing." Damon leered at Bonnie who was now standing behind Kai.

"You have three seconds to get the fuck out of here, Salvatore." Kai threatened.

"Or what? You'll kill me too?" Damon's eyebrows rose mockingly.

Bonnie gasped out loud, it was a known fact what happened, but for Damon to throw it out there like that was callous, even for him.

Kai laughed, then went for Damon's throat.

Bonnie had to applaud Damon, he did have great survival instincts. He quickly opened the door and brought Kai out in the open so there was more room to maneuver. However, all that did was give Kai more space to swing. He had Damon down on the floor when his teammates, including Damon's younger brother, came and pushed him back.

Stefan helped him up while looking him over for serious injuries. "What the fuck happened?" Damon shook his brother off and pointed accusingly at Kai.

"That psycho attacked me for no fucking reason!" Damon spat out, "I want his ass gone. Trade him to whoever wants a killer on their team."

"You are a gotdamn liar, Damon." Bonnie stepped up, "Why don't you tell the truth?" The forming crowd grew quiet when Bonnie made herself known, "Tell them that you not only walked in on me and Kai, but that your sick ass thought you'd invite yourself to some action. And when we both told you to fuck off, you did what you always do and lashed out."

"So you get your rocks off by fucking a killer, Bon Bon?" Damon taunted.

"Watch your mouth, Salvatore." Matt Donovan, another teammate and one of Bonnie's friends snapped back.

"She does, apparently. I walked in the closet and she was riding his dick like-" He never got to finish that sentence. Kai's punch connected squarely with his jaw and everyone flinched as they heard the sound of bone breaking.

***

"Well, that could have been handled better."

"I don't know, I think Salva-dick got just what he deserved."

Bonnie rolled her eyes as she listened to their discussion of the events of that morning. Luke and Liv had missed all the commotion because they were off in the gym for their own morning workout. The younger Parker siblings were gunning for a spot at the next Olympics and were currently neck and neck with the Shibutani's, so they needed every advantage that they could get.

They were all gathered in the condo that Kai shared with his younger brother and sister. Kai was finishing up a conference call in the bedroom, while Bonnie was in the kitchen stress baking. Luke and Liv lounged on bar stools, eyes glued to their phones which were constantly pinging from all the news alerts.

For someone who had to have his jaw wired shut and couldn't talk, Damon had wasted no time in getting the story out about how his jaw was broken. His wildly exaggerated version of it, anyways. Spinning a wild tale of trying to protect a naïve and too trusting Bonnie from 'Killer Kai' as he called him. The figure skating world didn't really have too many widely known scandals, so something like this was the story of the decade. The fact that it was Kai making waves again only turned up the intensity.

Bonnie had given up and after sending a few texts to her grandmother and close friends, turned her phone off completely. Her Twitter and Instagram had completely blown up and there was no way she was going to be able to keep up with it, she left it in the very capable hands of her BFF and publicist, Caroline Forbes.

"So, by now everyone knows that America's newest skating sweetheart is banging hockey's bad boy." Liv crinkled her nose, "Johnny and Tara are calling you two the Beauty and the Beast of the ice."

"Johnny and Tara need to fix their own wigs before coming for ours." Bonnie muttered.

Luke cackled in glee while typing away, "Don't worry, I'm posting it anonymously." Liv outright laughed when her brothers' comment was swiftly picked up and started trending.

"Oh God." Bonnie set down the sheet pan, "Kai! Come and collect your siblings."

"Just threaten to cut their hair!" He yelled back. Bonnie snickered as the two noticeably calmed down. Their fair skin and golden hair was a part of their 'All American Appeal', Liv had once dyed her hair black in defiance, and they had a sponsor almost pull their funding! She had been made to dye it back, and ordered to never so much as trim her hair without prior approval.

It also made for a great contrast to Kai and Jo's dark hair and darker eyes.

The two sets of twins were split by almost 10 years and two unhappy marriages. Jo and Kai's mom had divorced Joshua Parker when the kids were still in grade school. He wasted no time in remarrying and soon he and his new wife welcomed their own set of twins. Joshua put them out on the ice as soon as he possibly could, much to the detriment of his new wife. That marriage didn't last long either, although it was due to illness instead of divorce.

She had just pulled the latest loaf of bread out of the oven when Kai emerged from his bedroom. "Bon, are you planning on feeding all of Mystic Falls?"

"I stress bake, you know this." She blew a strand of hair out of her eyes, "Stop bitching and grab a loaf." She wasn't much of a cook (that was more Kai's department) but she loved baking, something about the kneading of dough never failed to calm her down.

"So, what's the verdict?" Liv had always been the more blunt of the two, "Are we moving again?"

While Jo had opted to stay in Portland to be around their mother, the twins had moved with Kai out to Virginia when he had requested to be traded in order to get away from his father's interference. Bonnie always thought that was a big indicator of Kai's personality that most people overlooked when gossiping about Kai and his family. They had made it crystal clear over the years that no matter where Kai went, they would follow. Bonnie really wanted to ask why, but her relationship with Kai hadn't reached that level as of yet.

"Suspension for 10 games, mandated anger management, and they wanted a public apology." Bonnie scoffed, she knew Hell would indeed freeze over before Kai willingly apologized to Damon. 'Should've told them that Damon needs to apologize for not comprehending the word no." Kai wrapped an arm around Bonnie's waist and dropped a kiss on her temple, "As a matter of fact, something like that did come up. Turns out Giuseppe had already settled more than a few lawsuits concerning his son and his…misunderstanding of that word. So he was looking to make this go away as quietly as possible, god forbid he lose any more sponsors. You probably have a shit ton load of messages from his lawyers looking to keep you quiet about the whole thing."

True to his word, when Bonnie finally left Kai's place and made it back to her apartment, Caroline was there looking frazzled. "Where have you been? You were supposed to have been here hours ago! I've been fielding calls from E-VERY-ONE! We are not leaving this place until we develop a game plan."

Bonnie groaned, she left the comfort and coziness of Kai's place for this?

Three hours and many cups of coffee later, Caroline was satisfied and got on the phone with Kai's publicist, someone named Klaus Mikealson. The two spent an hour discussing what statement they would release that politely told everyone to back off and mind their own damn business.

After all was said and done, it was decided that a short statement from both of them would suffice. With Kai and Bonnie refusing to give in to the pressure to do a sit down interview, soon enough all the hoopla died down, and life returned to normal.

***

While Kai was serving his suspension, he would hang around the rink when Bonnie was training, often joining her on the ice. Bonnie was pleasantly surprised to find that they skated very well together. She had thought about doing pairs skating briefly, but she found out the hard way that she had major trust issues. The idea of someone lifting her and relying only on them to keep her stable, not to mention the throws, used to make Bonnie tense up so much that it was decided that she'd stick with being a solo skater.

But with Kai, all that doubt was gone. She allowed him to do a simple lift and was surprised at how much fun it was. She supposed that was why Tessa and Scott both looked like they were having a blast on the ice together.

Bonnie had been lulled back into a feeling of complacency when the next bombshell dropped. She was working on her triple Salchow with a triple loop with Kai coaching her through it when his voice was overshadowed by another's.

"You're hesitating on your take-off. You'll never complete that full third rotation if you keep holding yourself back."

Bonnie skidded to a stop next to Kai who had murder in his eyes. She had never seen him look at anyone with that much hatred, not even Damon. "Go in and change, I'll meet you outside." Though he spoke to Bonnie, he never took his eyes off the man. They skated to the edge of the ice and the man held the door for Bonnie as he smiled in her direction, completely ignoring Kai. "It's a pleasure to watch you skate, Bonnie. Remember what I said about holding yourself back."

"Don't you fucking talk to her." Kai hissed. "Why are you here Joshua?"

Bonnie stumbled on her way into the locker room. Joshua? As in Kai's dad? She sped through changing, not wanting to leave them alone for long. She needn't have worried though, when she burst out of the changing room, Kai was waiting alone.

He was uncharacteristically silent the entire drive back to her place, dropping her off and refusing to come inside, saying he needed to get back home and see Luke and Liv. He left her with a warning to stay away from his father, and to call him or security if she saw him hanging around the rink.

The next few weeks were a strange time for Bonnie. She saw Kai less and less due to his suspension being up and thus he was back to practicing with his team. The little snatches of time they did manage to grab together were strained and filled with awkward silences. Bonnie attempted to broach the subject with Kai many times, but he shut her down cold every time, so she finally stopped asking.

The discord in her relationship eventually showed itself on the ice in her performances. She found herself stumbling over the simplest of steps, and in one devastating case, almost falling coming out of a sit spin. That error cost her a place on the podium at the Four Continents Championships.

Bonnie shut herself away from everyone for a week straight after that loss. The only people she spoke to was her coach, grandmother, or Caroline. She needed to get her head back on straight and figure out what it was that she wanted, and if Kai would be a part of that going forward. It didn't help that he had only called her twice since her loss. Bonnie didn't expect him to drop everything for her, but damn, a visit would have been nice!

To add even more insult to injury, Joshua Parker had been spotted creeping around the rink during her practice time. He didn't approach her, but Bonnie knew he was there, and she found it difficult to focus on what she should be doing instead of worrying about when and where he would pop up next. She decided to cut out the middle man and handle the situation herself.

The next time he was spotted hanging around, Bonnie waited until her practice time was over and confronted him just outside the building.

"Can I help you with something?" Bonnie planted herself directly in his path.

He looked momentarily surprised that she approached him by herself, but quickly recovered. "As a matter of fact, I think I can help you. I know you've been having some…..difficulties lately-"

"That's none of your business, Mr. Parker." Bonnie cut him off sharply. "Why are you constantly hanging around when none of your children are here?"

"I was hoping to enlist your help in regaining contact with Lucas and Olivia." Bonnie noticed he didn't mention Kai at all. "I have a few things of a personal matter that I need to discuss with them. You see, they're turning 22 in a few weeks and-"

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from her?" Bonnie whirled around, she hadn't even heard Kai pull up.

"You say a lot of things Malachai." Joshua didn't miss a beat, almost like he knew Kai would show up. "Who knows what I'm supposed to listen to?" He held out his hands, palms up and shrugged. "I'm just a father hoping to reconnect with his children."

"You're a power hungry narcissist who drove all of your kids away." Kai snapped back, "This is the last time I'm going to tell you this, stay away from my brother and sister." He took Bonnie's wrist to drag her away.

But Joshua had to get the last word in, "You think you're helping them? Look at what your relationship with poor Bonnie has done to her skating. Her showing at Four Continents was dismal and I think we all know why." He turns to address Bonnie, "As much as this pains me to say, my son is something of a cancer to those around him, please don't let him affect your promising future."

"If I see you even so much as breathe around Bonnie again, I'll put a blade through your fucking skull." Bonnie's mouth dropped open at the explicit threat, she remained speechless until they got to her place. Bonnie made sure the door was locked before she started in.

"What the actual fuck, Kai?"

"I should be asking you that, what were you doing talking to him, didn't I tell you to stay away from him?" Bonnie felt her temper spike as she watched him pace restlessly across her living room floor.

"Okay, first of all, don't talk to me like I'm a damn child." She retorted, "Second, I confronted him because he was constantly hanging around, I wanted to see what he wanted so he could leave."

"Why didn't you call security? Or me, for that matter?"

Bonnie snorted, "Would you have picked up, or just let it go to voicemail like you have all the other times I called?" She nodded as he stayed silent, "Yeah, I thought so. He was at my practice, on my time, throwing me off my game. So, I handled it, or tried to at least."

"You still shouldn't have talked to him." Kai stubbornly insisted.

Bonnie finally felt her last shred of patience snap, "You know what? This is bullshit." She advanced on Kai, "You're telling me that I need to stay away from him, but you're not telling me why."

"The fact that I asked you to isn't good enough?" He asked incredulously

"No! Not anymore! This whole thing has been fucking with my skating, and if I'm going to put up with all this craziness, I think I deserve to know why."

Kai chuckled bitterly, "You're worried about your skating? My bad, I'm so sorry that my family issues are preventing you from being all you can be. Luke isn't sleeping and Liv isn't eating again, but hey, let's worry about your skating."

Bonnie pointed at him accusingly, "See, that's what I'm talking about! I didn't know about either of those things because none of you told me. You've all been freezing me out, and it feels really shitty."

Kai sighed, "I know I've been a little absent" He ignores Bonnie's scoff, "But trust me when I say I'm protecting you."

"By leaving me in the dark and unable to fend for myself? I can't fight what I don't know, Kai. I just want to understand what's so horrible that-"

"He broke me, Bonnie!" Kai yelled out. "He broke me and I was not about to let him do the same thing to Luke and Liv. He pushed and pushed until the thought of stepping on that ice made me break out in hives, until every time I laced up my skates, my hands would be shaking. I used to love skating, until he got his hands on me and made me hate every aspect of it."

Kai wearily sat down on her couch, "Nothing I ever did was good enough, if I placed second, I was a failure and an embarrassment as a son. If I placed first, my score had to be that much higher than the competition, otherwise it was a meaningless win."

"Oh, Kai." Bonnie dropped to her knees in front of him.

"Jo got off lucky, she used to skate as well, but blew out her knee so bad that there was no hope for her to ever rise to competition level. So she got to go pursue other things." He leaned back against the couch, gazing up at the ceiling.

"I remember being so fucking jealous that she was free, because with her gone, he focused all his attention on me. Practice every day, rationing my food to the point of me almost passing out. The things he would say to "motivate" me" Kai air quoted, "I wouldn't say to my enemy, much less my own kid. And everyone knew, but they didn't say anything because to them, he was just a dedicated father and coach."

Bonnie saw his jaw clench, "My mom saw what was happening and tried to stop it, that's a big reason why they split. She thought that if she limited the time that we spent together, then it wouldn't be as bad. But it got worse, because now she wasn't there to act as a buffer at home." His voice softened, "I wanted to kill myself, that's how bad it was." Bonnie felt her eyes well up, she had no idea it was that bad.

"I wanted to kill myself and probably would have if it wasn't for mom and Jo. Jo hooked me up with a therapist friend of hers who helped me see that what he was doing was seriously fucked up. I was already an adult then, so I just stopped. I stopped showing up to practices, I stopped spending time with dad, I stopped skating altogether for a few years. Which was how I discovered that it wasn't the skating that I didn't love, it was my dad. I tried out for a minor league hockey team and made it. The difference was like night and day, so I worked my ass off to move up to the pros." He smiled to himself, I didn't think I'd like it so much, but I did. Still do."

Bonnie almost wished she didn't have to ask her next question. "What happened with the twins?"

Kais face darkened, "The same fucking thing. He got to have a damn do over with his new wife. There was no question in his mind that they would skate, none at all. I don't know what Virginia thought her kids were going to grow up to be, but she didn't need to bother. Joshua already had their futures mapped out in vivid detail. And just like when Jo stopped, he focused all his attention on me? When I stopped, he focused all his attention on them."

Bonnie saw him blink away tears, "I really didn't think he would be as tough on them as he was with me. I honestly thought he would have learned his lesson." He laughed, but there was no joy in it. "I guess we all know the answer to that one. And when their mom died, there was no safety net at home for them."

"Oh God." Bonnie whispered.

"When I caught wind of what was happening, that history repeated itself, I felt sick. I left them to go through the same hell that I went through." His voice was thick with unshed tears. Bonnie moved to sit next to him on the couch.

"That night, the night I threw down with Saltzman, I shouldn't have been playing at all. Liv had called Jo to see if she could score her some prescription strength diet pills in order to help her lose weight. She was already under the 100 lb mark! But according to dear old dad, she was too heavy for Luke to lift and was causing him extra strain on his back when they did their lifts. Jo called me and I went and brought them to my mom's place."

He shook his head, "They both looked so sick, Bon. It had been a while since any of us had seen them in person, Joshua controlled where they went and who they saw, and when I saw them that night, I knew why. I was furious, but figured I could use the game to work off some of my anger before I went home. It was just a punch, but it hit him at the wrong angle, and down he went."

Bonnie rubbed his arm soothingly, "You know that wasn't your fault right? It was a one in a million thing that happened. We all know from the autopsy report that Alaric was already suffering from a concussion from the previous game, and was still cleared to play. He was already bleeding into his brain, he could have bumped his head on a door and gotten the same results."

"Yeah, I know. Doesn't make it any easier to live with. It also pretty much torpedoed any chance I had of fighting for custody of Luke and Liv. My mom couldn't do it because she wasn't a blood relative, and we had been told there was no physical abuse happening that would warrant them being immediately removed, Jo filed for custody instead."

"So how did they come to live with you?" Bonnie knew they had been under Kai's care for almost a decade at this point, even though they were past the age of majority.

"During the investigation that happened after Saltzman died, I was repeatedly asked about my mental state. I was honest and open about everything, even gave them access to my therapist who kept records of my sessions. Which opened up a whole new can of worms, because Luke and Liv had both been keeping journals of their day to day life with Joshua. He was offered a deal, give up custody or face the ensuing investigation into his parenting. Pretty sure you can guess which one he chose." He said wryly.

"Are they okay with you telling me this?" Bonnie asked gently. She didn't want him to overstep and share something that they didn't want her to know.

"Yeah, matter of fact, they were going to swing by this weekend and clear the air. They both hate that Joshua even had you on his radar, and they wanted you to know why."

"Why not tell me all this before?" Bonnie asked, "Like right after he showed up, or when I kept asking you?"

Kai shrugged, "This is a mess of epic proportions, Bonnie. I wanted you far away from the fallout of whatever he's planning. Because he is planning something, that ultimatum came with a nice shiny restraining order until they turn 22. That's happening soon, which is why he's back sniffing around. I don't know if he just wants them back under his thumb, or if he's got something else up his sleeve. I thought that by staying away from you, that he'd leave you alone."

"Yeah well, that backfired spectacularly."

"No kidding."

All was quiet until he turned to her, "I am sorry about Four Continents, Bon. I know I was an ass to leave you hanging like that. Especially when I know you were off your game because of all this drama." He takes her hand in his and starts tracing the lines, "I will totally understand if you want to end this."

Bonnie felt her heart speed up, did she want to end this? She's not going to deny the fact that her relationship drama negatively affected her performance at times. On the other hand, being with Kai has also helped her become a stronger skater, he really knew what he was talking about when it came to critiquing her and the advice he passed was always helpful. She didn't want to leave him hanging at a time when he, Luke, and Liv needed support the most. But she also needed to be honest with herself about her inability to keep her personal and professional lives separated.

Kai seemed to read the hesitation in her eyes, "It's okay, Bonnie. I get it, I'm not mad." He smiled sadly, "I'm sorry I let it get this bad, but I'm not sorry I met you." He gave her one last kiss before letting himself out.

 

***

Three Months Later….

Bonnie felt triumphant as she skated off the ice, she felt as if she had thoroughly redeemed herself after her disastrous showing at Four Continents, and going by the scores, the judges thought so too.

"Silver!" Caroline shouted as they celebrated in the hotel afterwards.

"I know!" Bonnie squealed as she jumped on the bed. The rest of the night was spent skyping everyone who couldn't be there in person, and ordering obscene amounts of room service.

"Oh my god." Caroline nudged Bonnie awake, "Look at this." She turned her laptop so Bonnie could read the headlines. Sure enough Joshua had tried to go public with his 'woe is me, I just want my family back' tale, but in a power move of their own, the rest of the Parkers had banded together in solidarity and opened up their Pandora's box of trauma that Joshua heaped on them over the years. Bonnie read the whole article in one sitting. She was so proud of them for standing together and not letting Joshua control them through fear anymore.

Even though Joshua had been thoroughly beaten, he still tried to get in a last dig at Kai. By using Bonnie and Kai's failed relationship, he insinuated that Kai had been abusive and that was the reason her skating had suffered. He referenced her bounce back into the top 3 that happened once they broke up as proof.

Bonnie was pissed, how dare he try and use her to get at his son? She wanted to release a statement, but Caroline talked her out of it, saying she had a better idea.

***

The game was still in the first period when Bonnie arrived. She took a seat in the top row, not wanting to draw attention to herself and waited for an opening. It came 10 minutes into the second half, Kai was sent to the penalty box for cross-checking. Bonnie made her way down the stairs, holding held her head high, giving the audience (and cameras) the time and opportunity to catch on to what she was doing.

She was halfway down when the crowd caught on and let out a roar, which led to the cameras swinging their way to see what was happening. It caught her clearing the last three steps and walking over to sit next to the penalty box that now held a still clueless Kai.

Being used to the rowdiness of a hockey crowd, he paid the increasing noise no mind. No matter how many people beat on the glass, he was in his own world. It wasn't until the jumbo-tron flashed 'LOOK TO YOUR LEFT, PARKER' that he snapped out of it. Bonnie grinned as his eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting to see her there.

She didn't try to speak to him (with all the noise it would have been damn near impossible) just leaned against the glass. When his time was up, he shot her a grin that showed off his dimples and winked at her before skating back onto the ice.

'Choke on that, Joshua.' Bonnie thought to herself.


End file.
